


Dead, Dying, and Living

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [84]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Universe Hopping, F/M, Flashback, GFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He misses his Masters. Misses his Obi-Wan, who fights and loves and lives all with the same passion and fierce glee. Misses Maul, who never had the chance here to become the powerful warrior who walked at the dark edge of the line between shadow and light to balance out Obi-Wan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead, Dying, and Living

"Will you tell me a story, daddy?" Mawan looks up at Anakin with a bright smile on her face, snuggling close to him on the bunk she shares with her older half-sister.

"What story do you want to hear, little one?" Anakin is glad for his little girl, even if he's never quite been sure it was a good idea to acquiese to the plea of this universe's Padmé to be the husband his own counterpart - the broken shell that stood at the Emperor's shoulder in holocasts - no longer knew how to be. Perhaps it had been guilt over the horror that had happened when he'd followed her and Obi-Wan to Mustafar, or his relief that despite everything, she'd lived.

"Tell me about the blue glowy man?" Mawan glances over at a point that looks to be empty to Anakin's eyes, but he doesn't doubt she sees something there. Force-ghosts have never been something he expected or understood. "He looks sad a lot."

"What does he look like?" Anakin frowns, wrapping one arm protectively around his daughter. There are any number of Jedi who it could be, he supposes, but he's not sure he'd know anything about any of them, when most of them had died so very soon after his arrival here. Even seven years of living in this universe, hiding and building rebellion against Sidious among the surviving Jedi and Seperatists, he still doesn't know anyone well beyond the small handful of people he has adopted as family.

"He's tall and sad and has long hair like yours only not curly." Mawan tilts her head. "And he dresses like Uncle Mace."

"Has he said anything?" Anakin can't place who the person might be from the little description Mawan has given him, though at least tall rules out this universe's Obi-Wan. He still doesn't know if he can forgive what the man would have been willing to do, if Anakin hadn't stopped him. What he had seen as his counterpart made to follow Obi-Wan from mining platform to the riverbank.

He clamps down on the memory, shielding it tightly as it wells up despite his efforts, not letting it leak where Mawan might see it. She is still a tiny child, still innocent despite the constant secrecy and fear and skating the edge of disaster that her life has been since before she was born.

_"Don't!" Anakin skids down the slope, the vision of his counterpart maimed and burning, left to die on the banks of the lava by his mentor still wavering in front of his eyes. "You **can't**!"_

_He meets the gaze of his counterpart briefly, who has a snarl on his face, but has at least for a moment not followed, and will soon be far enough past not to be killed in the horrific manner Anakin had seen._

_It doesn't help Ankin, though, as Kenobi turns, shock clear on his face for a brief moment before it fades into the same grief, pain, and anger that Anakin can feel swirling in the Force like a miasma, dragging everything around it into darkness._

_"I don't believe we've met."_

_"Not **you** and me, no." Anakin can feel the faint thread of worry from Zett along the nascent bond he has with the Padawan, and he hopes the boy is able to get Padmé safely away. Anakin will find a way to follow. "The person I know who wears that face would make a clean kill, or never have walked into this fight."_

_He misses his Masters. Misses his Obi-Wan, who fights and loves and lives all with the same passion and fierce glee. Misses Maul, who never had the chance here to become the powerful warrior who walked at the dark edge of the line between shadow and light to balance out Obi-Wan. Misses their sharp-edged barbs and acid wit, their tolerance of and affection for the boy he'd been and the man he'd been trying to become._

_This universe had been bad enough when he stepped into it, and worse when he sees the person it has shaped out of his beloved teacher._

_He brings up his blue lightsaber in time to block a strike from Kenobi, falling into the familiar dance of a fight, even while the Force is strange and sluggish around him. He ducks another strike, diving upslope awkwardly even as he opens himself further to the Force. There's something strange happening, and he needs to figure it out._

_**MASTER!** _

_The shout from Zett vibrates along their bond, and Anakin has to roll to avoid being cut in half, grabbing at his other lightsaber. He waits for Kenobi to come closer, and parries the blade, stepping in closer even though it leaves him vulnerable, activating the other saber so the blood-red blade pierces Kenobi's chest just under his heart. He doesn't want to leave the man dying here, but the lessons Maul had driven home make him back away, returning his lightsabers to his belt, and racing for the landing platform where he'd left his little ship and Zett._

_The living are more important than the dead and the dying._


End file.
